Skip to main content

Cybernetic Approach to Project Management: Where Sense Making Intelligence Is Needed

  • Chapter
Autonomous Systems: Developments and Trends

Part of the book series: Studies in Computational Intelligence ((SCI,volume 391))

Abstract

The original cybernetics of Norbert Wiener concerns self-regulation and equilibrium stabilisation around specified goal – mainly through negative feedback. This is an attractive preposition for project management. Yet complexity and chaos of projects are better reflected by non-linear systems, which in turn are better manageable in adaptive and self-organised distributed systems with positive feedback.

Paper presents the mental model of project management based on cybernetic system approach with several asynchronously running decentralised subsystems based on specific component-goal oriented processes.

Without claming the wholeness or completeness of the solution the indices of possible project performance improvements provide sufficient justification for continuing research in this area.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bousquet, A.: Scientific Way of Warfare: Order and Chaos on the Battlefields of Modernity. Columbia University Press, New York (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  • Caupin, G., et al.: International Project Management Association: International Competence Baseline (version 3). IPMA (2007), ISBN 0-9553213-0-1

    Google Scholar 

  • Gell-Mann, M.: The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex. Little Brown, London (1994)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, F.: The wizards of Armageddon. Simon & Schuster, reissued Standford University Press, Stanford, USA (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufmann, S.: At Home in the Universe: The Search for Law of Self-Organization and Complexity. Oxford University Press, London (1955)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, G., Roberts, I.: Coaching for authentic Leadership. In: Passmore, J. (ed.) Leadership Coaching: Working with Leaders to Develop Elite Performance, Kogan Page Ltd., London (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lent, B.: Dataflow Architecture fo Machine Control. Research Studies Press, Ltd., Taunton (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lent, B.: IT-Projekte lenken - mit System. Vieweg, Wiesbaden (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lent, B.: Human Factor Skills of Project Managers Derived from the Analysis of the Project Management Processes. PMI AGC, Bahrain (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  • PMI, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge PMBOK Guide, 3rd edn. PMI Inc., Newtown Square (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  • RTO Technical Repport TR-SAS-050, Exploring New Command and Control Concepts and Capabilities, NATO Neuilly-sur-Seine Cedex, France (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rufenacht, U.: Projektschlussbeurteilung P05/ProCur (Final report on Project P05/ProCur), Internal Report Swiss Ministry of Finances, Bern, Switzerland (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, H., Singh, A.: Principles of complexity and chaos theory in project execution: a new approach to management cost engineering. Cost Engineering 44(12), 23–32 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, I.: Does God Play Dice?: The New Mathematics of Chaos. Blackwell Publishing, MA (2002)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, J., Mengel, T.: Preparing project managers to deal with complexity – Advanced project management education. International Journal of Project Management 26(3), 304–315 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verma, V.K.: Human Resource Skills for the Project Manager. PMI, Newtown Square (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  • von Foerster, H.: Cybernetics of Cybernetics, Biological Computer Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1974)

    Google Scholar 

  • Waldrop, M.M.: Complexity, The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, New York (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wienert, N.: Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. MIT, Massachusetts (1948, 1961)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bogdan Lent .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Lent, B. (2012). Cybernetic Approach to Project Management: Where Sense Making Intelligence Is Needed. In: Unger, H., Kyamaky, K., Kacprzyk, J. (eds) Autonomous Systems: Developments and Trends. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 391. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24806-1_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24806-1_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-24805-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-24806-1

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics